Curiosity Mars Rover – Pictures, Videos and Links

Showcasing cool pictures brought to you from Curiosity Mars Rover, 154 million miles away. This is a resource for those curious about the Curiosity Mars rover with pictures, videos and links. The Mars Science Laboratory is the most expensive and complex lander ever sent to the red planet, a nuclear-powered rover that is scaling a 3 mile tall mountain to seek the building blocks of life in the frozen history of the red planet and evidence of past or present habitability. Curiosity will climb layer by layer through vast eras of the planet’s enigmatic history, possibly shedding light on the transition from a warmer, wetter past to the arid, frigid world of today.

First colour picture from Curiosity

Source: Nasa

New images from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows an area excavated by the blast of the Mars Science Laboratory’s descent stage rocket engines

The MRO image shows the terrain around the rover (blue dot) at its landing site within Gale Crater on Mars. The blue fans either side are rocket blast marks in the ground.

Source: Nasa

Curiosity’s Latest Mars Image in Color, showing Mt. Sharp.

Source: Nasa

Curiosity’s Latest Mars Image in Color, showing Mt. Sharp.

Source: Nasa

The Gale Crater as seen by Curiosity.

Source: Nasa

Curiosity (and its parachute) as seen by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Source: Nasa

Shot of the ground from the navcam

Source: Nasa

Curious about Curiosity? Here’s a basic diagram
Source: Unknown

(A) Curiosity will trundle around its landing site looking for interesting rock features to study. Its top speed is about 4cm/s

(B) This mission has 17 cameras. They will identify particular targets, and a laser will zap those rocks to probe their chemistry

(C) If the signal is significant, Curiosity will swing over instruments on its arm for close-up investigation. These include a microscope

(D) Samples drilled from rock, or scooped from the soil, can be delivered to two hi-tech analysis labs inside the rover body

(E) The results are sent to Earth through antennas on the rover deck. Return commands tell the rover where it should drive next

Before and After shots show the effects of weights from the entry vehicle of NASA’s Curiosity rover hitting the surface of Mars.

Source: Nasa

Coloured hi-res picture of north rim of crater (click to enlarge).

Source: Nasa

Curiosity’s view towards the base of Mount Sharp, the rover’s ultimate goal. This high-resolution image has been “white balanced” to provide colours more recogniseable to the human eye,

Source: Nasa

Curiosity Landing Videos

Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror
Team members at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory share the challenges of the Curiosity Mars rover’s final minutes to landing on the surface of Mars.

Mind-blowing Curiosity landing animation with live audio commentary

Curiosity’s Descent
The Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) captured the rover’s descent to the surface of the Red Planet. The instrument shot 4 fps video from heatshield separation to the ground.